The Fables of Aesop is out now!
The Glory of Knowing or, Knowledge for Its own Sake

by

Matthew Bianco

$3.00

Presented at the A Contemplation of Glory Conference 2021.

In his book on the Republic, Catholic Philosopher D.C. Schindler argues that human beings today participate in misology (hatred of reason) when they demand that knowledge is only worth pursuing if it is useful. In this talk, The CiRCE Institute’s Matt Bianco will consider that knowledge leads to glory, not only for the person who has the knowledge, but also toward the thing about which the person has knowledge. Whereas we typically think of the activities of a person as the reason for why we bestow glory upon him (think Achilles and his war-craft earning glory, or Odysseus and his cleverness earning glory), glory is the appropriate and automatic fruit of true knowledge. Knowledge of your neighbor leads to bestowing proper glory to him; knowledge of a waterfall leads to bestowing proper glory upon it and its Creator; knowledge of God leads to bestowing glory proper to Him. Join Matt Bianco to consider glory as the fruit of knowledge and the reasons, therefore, why we ought to pursue knowledge apart from its immediate usefulness.